Game News Jade Empire on your home PC soon

[Andyman Messiah]

Jade Empire is the better game (well it was a game at least), but Fable was a very well done port.

You thought Fable was a good port? I guess if you discount the horrible and unintuitive save game system...

As for Jade Empire PC...well, if the reviews are decent I might give it a go but I can't say I'm too inspired at this stage.

Is it true that the JE inventory system consists solely of swapping in and out bits of jewelery from a single slot?

I wrote that? Anyway, yes, even though I didn't write it, Fable is a good port. Good port, mediocre game. The save game system is a minor detail, really.

 

[Trash]

Oh heck, it's an rpg. I'm willing to play anything during the drought of decent rpg games were experiencing these days.


(though I admit that I really am looking forward to it. Played it a bit on the xbox and liked it.)

 

[Jiles]

Is it true that the JE inventory system consists solely of swapping in and out bits of jewelery from a single slot?

More or less, yes. Arguably the weapon styles count as "kind of" inventory, but that's stretching it.

*shrugs*

I enjoyed JE more or less, but I hope they fix the Jade Golem form for PC. Waaaaaaaaaaaaay overpowered it was.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

As for Jade Empire PC...well, if the reviews are decent I might give it a go but I can't say I'm too inspired at this stage.

I'd be surprised if most reviews of Jade Empire for PC were any different than those for KoTOR, which consisted of: a copy and paste job from the Xbox version, a little snippet saying how the interface was fully reworked, and the same score give or take a 0.1.

 

[The Watchman]

Seriously who cares ? If this game was made for PC first i would get it, but no way ill get some shitboxed game, good port or not, its still a shitbox game, why should i support this ?

 

[Jiles]

Oh, and I can't see this game working without a control pad. Not at all.

 

[Drakron]

I don't think it was used very often, but the Imperial language in Jade Empire was indeed a full-fledged language of its own and not the KotOR "alien-speak".

It was used often enough and no, it was not a "fell-fledged laanguage" since they pretty much repeated the same phases over and over.

I'm not sure what you mean, here. Jade Empire wasn't an ode to our love for China...

I said "remenber" since I certainly remenber that being said.

And you are right, its not a ode and you are lucky Alaska is a US state ...

 

[Dgaider]

It was used often enough and no, it was not a "fell-fledged laanguage" since they pretty much repeated the same phases over and over.

You can keep saying that if you like, but that doesn't make it true. The language was called Tho Fan and was created by a linguist, and I'm pretty sure we still have a record of it around here. That said, I don't believe it was used a great deal except as ambience.

I said "remenber" since I certainly remenber that being said.

I see. Good thing there's nothing wrong with your menory, then.

Here's a question for you, D. Gaider, if you care to answer it. I remember Microsoft published Jade Empire for the Xbox. Although you don't have a publisher listed yet, if Microsoft publishes the PC version, will it be Vista only like Halo 2?

Sorry, I've no idea. I'm not even sure who's publishing it. I doubt that's something we would be in favor of, though. The idea is to put the game in more people's hands, not less.

 

[obediah]

Jade Empire is the better game (well it was a game at least), but Fable was a very well done port.

You thought Fable was a good port? I guess if you discount the horrible and unintuitive save game system...

I was talking about controls and interface-type stuff, not game design. Basically, I could play the game with mouse and keyboard in 1600x1200 and the controls worked intuitively. Half the screens weren't a 640x480 postage stamp in a sea of black on my monitor, with a text window where I could see 4 words at a time and had to scroll through. The game sucked, so I forget all the details, but I was obvious they had thought about how someone with a mouse and keyboard and high resolution screen would play the game and adapted to that.

Is it true that the JE inventory system consists solely of swapping in and out bits of jewelery from a single slot?

you swap out stones in your bit of jewerly. And you get OMFG upgrades where you can put more stones in there.

And the stones pretty much just offer +1/+2/+3,.... to one or two of your 3 primary, or 3 social stats. It's quite possible the least satisfying lewt system ever.

 

[dipdipdip]

As for Jade Empire PC...well, if the reviews are decent I might give it a go but I can't say I'm too inspired at this stage.

I'd be surprised if most reviews of Jade Empire for PC were any different than those for KoTOR, which consisted of: a copy and paste job from the Xbox version, a little snippet saying how the interface was fully reworked, and the same score give or take a 0.1.

I'm not so sure this time. Gamespot was one of the few big name publications to give the game the review it deserved and even nominated it for their "most disappointing game of the year" dubious honor. Now that the hype has settled down, perhaps more critics may now be willing to address the game's shallow nature, tiny scope, short length, and rushed ending.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

^Maybe, and if that is the case then I expect some more balanced reviews to pop up. Though, I can't bring myself to expect them to do this.

 

[dipdipdip]

I'm just really eager to see how IGN will handle it. Their review was just so full of shit.

 

[DemonKing]

I'm just really eager to see how IGN will handle it. Their review was just so full of shit.

What did you expect from an "exclusive first review". It was quite clearly a review driven by hype and marketing dollars and nothing to do with the quality of the game itself.

Frankly I have found most Bio games to be good enough that they would get decent scores without having to resort to this kind of crap...but obviously the marketing gurus think that we would rather read a 9.9/10 OMFG!!!! pimp-piece than a well-measured 8.5/10 review based on the game's own merits.

Well, I guess the (by all reports) fairly average sales of JE on XBOX indicate how well the audience fell for that strategy.

 

[MarFish]

Regarding the Citadel stuff Greatatlantic mentions, have a look at this:

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/706/706601p1.html

 

[peak]

Oh heck, it's an rpg. I'm willing to play anything during the drought of decent rpg games were experiencing these days.


(though I admit that I really am looking forward to it. Played it a bit on the xbox and liked it.)

I wouldn't really call it an RPG, more like an adventure game. With stats and upgrades.

Jade Empire was a huuuge disappointment for me. More so than KotOR even, KotOR was fun once you got around the fact that it wasn't half as complex as BG2. I'm guessing Mass Effect will be the same, a shooter with some stats and dialogues. Meh. Award a bigger budget for the development of Dragon Age instead.

 

[Volourn]

Anyone who thinks KOTOR is better than JE is good 'ol fashion stupid.


"I wouldn't really call it an RPG, more like an adventure game. With stats and upgrades."

You are an idiot. It's a RPG. You play a role, you make choices, and those choices effect the game world. Sounds like a role-playing game to me.

 

[peak]

Anyone who thinks KOTOR is better than JE is good 'ol fashion stupid.


"I wouldn't really call it an RPG, more like an adventure game. With stats and upgrades."

You are an idiot. It's a RPG. You play a role, you make choices, and those choices effect the game world. Sounds like a role-playing game to me.

Wow. You really have it all defined for yourself. Are you one of those guys who say GTA is an RPG as well?

What about linearity? Jade Empire was basically a straight path with some small sidequests stationed here and there. If the game didn't open up later on and you could travel around all the world of course. I never got that far in it since the lack of real freedom completely turned me off, and nothing seemed to imply that was about to change.

And what about some more ways to define your character than choosing a weapon, some martial arts styles and The way of the Open or Closed Palm?

I'll say it again, I didn't play the whole game. Probably not even half of it. Hell, I might be wrong so be sure to enlighten me of the RPG-ness of Jade Empire.

Edit: oh and by the way, even if you convince me of it's RPG-ness it won't change the fact that the game itself is incredibly boring.

 

[Volourn]

Not trying to convince you of anything. You made up your mind, and that's fair enough. I'm just pointing out you are wrong, and your preferring of KOTOR just proves your stupidity. Nothing personal; just the truth.

JE may be linear in what areas you got to; but when it comes to varying ways to complete quests very few games do it better. That's why it's a RPG.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

JE may be linear in what areas you got to; but when it comes to varying ways to complete quests very few games do it better. That's why it's a RPG.

In truth, this pretty much describes the latest iterations of the GTA series. While I think it's important that multiple solutions to quest are a plus in RPGs, I don't think that it's exclusive nor defining of RPGs.

 

[Drakron]

Ha ha ha ...

JE completes quests the same way KotOR does, light/open or dark/closed.

And there is no much of a world ... you get to go to Tien's Landing or the Imperial City ... that's it since the other areas are closed (not going back to the starting area) and after you moved into the Imperial Palace you dont get to move to any other area outside what the games wants to.

 

[Volourn]

"In truth, this pretty much describes the latest iterations of the GTA series. While I think it's important that multiple solutions to quest are a plus in RPGs, I don't think that it's exclusive nor defining of RPGs."

True. I'm not too familiar with the GTA games - I've played a bit of them. However, it should also be stated that your stats do play a part in dialogue choices, and how to complete different quests.

And, no, Drakron, the more you try to pimp KOTOR, the more stupid you look if it's even possible.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Well, GTA doesn't do much in the way of allowing the character to solve situations through dialogue as its pretty much all on action. However, the action is pretty much in the hands of the player, who gets to decide just how to act based on possibilities open to him. You can complete a mission in a way, only to replay it and find out there are dozens - if not more - of possible other ways.

 

[Volourn]

Sounds very RPGish to me. Do stats have an effect on what you can do? If anything, that's one of the definiing RPG traits (along with choice).

 

[Deacdo]

You know, an RPG-lite game wouldn't be the worst thing for me to spend my money on, provided it at least gave me a charcter sheet to mess around with.

Don't bother with it. Character development is a joke. All the "styles" play about the same and the controls and combat system is terrible.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Sounds very RPGish to me. Do stats have an effect on what you can do? If anything, that's one of the definiing RPG traits (along with choice).

While in the past games the avatar operated as an extension of yourself when it came to reflexes, San Andreas crossed player reflexes with character skill in a way that will be somewhat familiar to you if you've played Deus Ex and Bloodlines (which you did play).

Basically, the player handles all the reflexes while there are character statistics determining the rate of success of these things. For instance, any character can jack a car and drive it; but the more time you spend driving a vehicle the better the speed and handling become. Getting better at bycicles will prevent the character from falling off of it too often; swimming will increase lung capacity; using a firearm will allow the player to shoot while running and in some cases, dual wield two weapons. And so on.

To illustrate my previous point, this means that if a character is tasked with something they can not do very well, they may resort to other skills to be able to pull it off.

There's only one instace I have found in the game where this wasn't possible because the mission required the character to be good enough at swimming. Curiously, it's also the only situation I remember in the game where having a given value in a skill produced a different result in dialogue. If CJ isn't good enough at swimming, the dialogue with the character who gives him the quest will be different (and a funny one at that) than what it would be if he is good enough.